Pilgrims 'stone the devil' on Idul Adha in Mina

Pilgrims 'stone the devil' on Idul Adha in Mina

Agencies, Mina, Saudi Arabia

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims "stoned the devil" on Friday in
the last -- and highly risky -- stage of the annual haj, as
Muslims around the world marked the first day of Idul Adha (Feast
of Sacrifice).

Masses of faithful, still clad in a two-piece seamless white
cloth or Ihram, flocked to Mina valley, just outside the holy
city of Mecca, where three giant concrete pillars symbolizing
"Satan" stand.

They came from Muzdalifah, a lowland between Mount Arafat,
where they spent on Thursday, and Mina.

Pilgrims were throwing seven small stones they collected
overnight from Muzdalifah at the first pillar known as the "big
Satan."

"I think that the U.S. administration -- not the American
people -- and Israel are the big Satans of this age. Today, I
stoned both," a 30-year-old Pakistani pilgrim who identified
himself only as Mohammad told AFP after performing the ritual.

The Bush administration had been targeting Islam and Muslims
even before the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and
Washington, for which the United States blamed Islamist radicals,
Mohammad affirmed.

The "Stoning of Satan" takes place over three days during
which pilgrims hurl seven stones every day at each of the three
18-meter (58-foot) high pillars standing 155 meters apart.

According to tradition, the ritual takes place at the site
where Satan appeared first to Prophet Abraham, to his son Prophet
Ismael, and to Abraham's wife Hagar.

"Islam orders respecting people's rights, money, honor and
lives ... and instructs against killing children, women and the
unarmed," Sheik Abdul Aziz Al al-Sheik said in a sermon.

He stressed that Islam was incompatible with terrorism and
attributing terrorism to it is unjust.

"Fighting the oppressed Muslims in Palestine is terrorism and
repression," he said, in reference to Israel. "The nation of
Islam is going through immense events today, requiring attention
be paid in order to be one nation defending its belief."

Security was tight throughout the area, reflecting the tension
prevailing in Muslim nations after the Sept. 11 attacks and the
U.S.-led war against terror, which many Muslims see as a war
against their faith.

Abraham and his family each threw seven stones at Satan. The
gesture has been perpetuated, and Muslims must perform it to
complete the haj.

Iranian pilgrims held a rally to denounce the United States
and Israel, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency
reported.

Every year during the pilgrimage, Iranians hold a low-key
"disavowal of pagans ceremony" within their camp to condemn the
United States and Israel.

Saudi Arabia said before the start of the pilgrimage that it
will not tolerate any anti-U.S. demonstrations, but the reported
rally was apparently allowed because it was confined within the
Iranian camp.

Thirty-five pilgrims died last year in a stampede during the
stoning. In 1998, 118 pilgrims were killed and more than 180
others injured, while a similar stampede in 1994 claimed 270
lives.

Thousands of security men, paramedics in ambulances, guides
and civil defense personnel stood guard as a "human sea" came in
and out of the stoning area, a two-tier huge track with a
capacity for 200,000 pilgrims an hour.

Helicopters constantly hovered overhead to monitor the huge
crowds with the help of more than 1,000 hi-tech cameras, all
connected to a control room run by top security authorities.

Pilgrims carrying umbrellas to protect them from sweltering
heat threw the small stones to cries of "Allahu Akbar" (God is
Greatest). Temperature was expected to soar above 33 degrees
Celsius (92 Fahrenheit).

After the stoning, pilgrims offer the sacrificial meat,
normally by slaughtering a sheep. At present, most of the
sacrifices are slaughtered at a 500-million-riyal ($133-million)
state-of-the-art abattoir and the meat is sent to poor countries.

The faithful then return to Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's
holiest shrine, to encircle the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure
revered by Muslims as the house of God, seven times.